Master Ben is sitting out this wrestling season at the high school, but younger brother Brad has taken up the sport at Rochelle Middle School. This is his very first year in wrestling and he is doing an incredible job. He seems to be a natural wrestler and learns very quickly. So far he is 4 and 2 on his wrestling career and has yet to be pinned…but that’ll come eventually. I am the team’s assistant wrestling coach.
Last night in a dual match with Sycamore Middle School, Sycamore put us down BIGtime. Out of 30 or so matches throughout the meet, Rochelle won three of them. The three that we did win were by pins, though. The kicker is that of the three wins in our column, Brad is responsible for two of them. He won both his matches last night by pin! If you’re interested, I posted video clips of his matches in our bengiraffe gallery starting on page 10. Brad’s in the yellow headgear.
It the first match against Sycamore last night, in the second period Brad had his opponent in a great far side cradle but couldn’t land it before time ran out. Then he came back in the third period to win the match by one of my favorite moves called “The Butcher.” It’s fairly painful for the unfortunate soul on the bottom. He set it up and ran it around the top of his opponents head, assumed great position and held it until the ref slapped the mat.
Wrestling is an incredibly fascinating but extremely grueling sport. It’s got to be one of the greatest sports on earth.
Hey Bruce congrats to your son and I bet you’re proud.
The only wrestling I have done was in 3rd grade, we had an odd gym teacher and he had us 3rd greaders trying to Graeco-Roman wrestle eachother. It was pretty fune. I remember feeling sorry for the girls who wore tights and a skirt on PE day.
It was sure hard then, but fun. He must be a strong young man!
You’ve got to try Sumo wrestling on unicycles then. Try one on one first then try an all out King of the Circle. Talk about a madhouse! Just try not to get impaled on a pedal when you go down.
Yes, when he doesn’t shower after practice.
I get to practice about a half hour late because school gets out before I get off work. When I walked into practice last night, the boys’ tongues were hanging out and the boys were all were really dragging. As I walked up, Coach Moore whispered to me, “After last night’s performance in Sycamore, it’s tough love time.” At the end of practice, he had the boys run the hallways for 15 minutes then we brought them into to the gym for wind sprints. Just before the boys hit the locker room, Coach told them that his puke bucket was empty which tells him that he must not be doing his job yet. He asked the boys, “Which hurts more, running in practice tonight or the loss to Sycamore last night?” Of course the boys all answered, “The loss, sir.” I can see the Marine coming out in his coaching but I also see it having a very positive result in the boys in learning hard work and discipline and that the results are well worth the effort. I predict we’ll do a bit better in the tournament this Saturday.
Ah, nobody can pee in your brain quite like a high school coach. I’ll have to admit though, I found out I could take alot more than I thought when I wrestled in high school (175lbs). I also saw team-mates pass out on the mat and one went into convulsions - good fun.
pic #1 when he has the half nelson tight like that and trying to pin, tell brad to try and look up. looking up and arching your back will center most of your weight right on your opponent helping him get both shoulders down for a pin. in wrestling always keep your head up no matter what! pic #2 his arms should be tighter. if possible get your hands locked around your elbows. the kid will not get out then. then you just pick him up and look at the croud as you slam him to the mat…er well take him down. good to hear the wins tho. i wrestled 2 years. junior and senior year. junior year weighing 140 and getting bumped from jv 140 to v145 the v152. yup chuggin water to make weight. senior year. weighing 145 on a heavy day going v160. last match i chugged a gallon of water beginning to end non stop to make weight. i gained 6 pounds in 5 minutes! made weight by 1/4 lb:D
Here's the video clip of the first picture’s match. Brad broke him down with a jamrod then went right to the half. I agree. He was teed up properly but still needed to head up and hip down for proper technique even though he was still able to pin the guy. That was back at the beginning of the season (that particular meet on my birthday, too) when he was just learning the sport. He’s doing well and learning by leaps and bounds.
Here's the clip associated with the second picture. The takedown happens about midway through the clip. Brad shoots, the guy sprawls well but Brad is able to power through it. Looks like he does suck the grip up tight to his chest as the move progresses. The takedown led to the pin a half a minute later. Mary’s taking the video and you can here her coaching him through the move in the background.
I wish I had to put on pounds to make weight when I was wrestling. I was always trying to cut weight. I started wrestling in school in West Virginia and I remember traveling to meets up and down the mountain roads with my lunch sack in hand. With my stomach knarling and my lunch sack staring me in the face, it seemed like the trips took forever. Then we had to wait in line to weigh in once we got there. As for my weight class, I tell folks that I wrestled 140 lbs. ago.
That reminds me of Ashley’s 7-year-old sister Aimee’s comment to her mom when she got home from her first ever wrestling meet earlier this season. She said, “Mom, you should have seen what they were wearing. It was scary!” I don’t think she’s been back to a meet since.
Just returned from a very long day at Regionals down in Sandwich, IL, eight teams each with two wrestlers in each weight class. We were up at 5:00 a.m. to catch the bus.
Brad lost his first match, but then won the next two matches in wrestle-backs to claim a spot for the 3rd/4th place match in the finals. The second wrestle-back match was tremendous. He wrestled one of the best matches this year against a top kid from DeKalb and beat the kid by a takedown in overtime. His 3rd/4th place match didn’t go so well, so he ended up taking 4th place in the tournament. But still, not bad for grabbing a place out of 16 wrestlers in his weight class especially in his first year of wrestling. But most importantly, the top four finishers head off to Sectionals next weekend. Should be good, but promises to be another very, very long day.
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